The Foggy Mirror

3 Mar 2015

Coincidentally to my new found addiction to deep fried potato wedges – did I mentioned deep fried?** – last night, purely by accident, I clicked onto a site of utter wonderment which, if you do likewise, will lead you to an entirely new view on the humble chip. He was never really humble to me, more like a staple. You may feel differently although this site could sway your take on chips.

Say what now? I should bookmark that site? You have got to be kidding!! It's now my homepage! And let me tell ya'll, it's a far nicer way to start the day than Google News UK, okay?

**On some packs of wedges, just below the technical section detailing the actual contents of the packaging and the nutritional value – really –, in the instruction section, you may note these things should be oven baked. I deep fry as an extra dosing of oil and fat makes 'em just perfect. There's also no health problem now as fat is 'in' and good and something else is now 'out' and bad. Not sure what's out, but it's probably something that was in last year.

28 Feb 2015

I forgot to mention last night that the new phones will also act as an intercom. This will prove very useful when her indoors is upstairs doing some cleaning, or taking a nap after doing some cleaning, or decorating, or washing her hair, or showering and I'm downstairs needing a coffee made. What?

Please remember I was a toughie, roughie roughneck way into the days when tough and rough were dropped in favour of task and risk followed by assessment and I vaguely remember how to risk asses – honestly, could you ever forget how to do something as fascinatingly useless as that then?

Thus I review the hazards and risks involved with the making of a cup of coffee. In a nut shell, making a coffee entails a combination of electrickery - bad, boiling water - bad, and heavy kettle lifting - bad, right? So, if you do a mental task risk assessment and things don't work out absolutely one hundred percent plus safe for yourself what to do? Get someone else to do it is what you do.

As my daddy once told me; when it was his turn to give baby me a bath, to check the water temperature, he'd put me in and if I turned red and screamed it was, for sure, too damn hot for his elbow.

Quote; Neil Gaiman.

“If you dare nothing, then when the day is over, nothing is all you will have gained.”

What did I get? After reading many reviews, always a confusing mistake, which ranged between stating the product was rubbish all the way to them being the best thing since Ally Bell woke one morning and said to himself, 'What to do today; what to do…', I done did go ahead and get a set of those RTX 4088 jobbies.

And? And so far so good. Two handsets with charger stands and a base station. The base station is just little bigger than a pack of cigarettes and surprisingly light. Plug the base station into the modem-router, the landline and power and that's it. JD.

The big plus over the old Phillips phones is you don't need to turn on the PC to use them as your chosen Skype account, hers as she calls family and friends far, far, far away regularly, is right there on the phone. Choose a contact, or punch in a number then simply choose to call via Skype-out or over landline. Skype to Skype is obviously also available.

Power down the router and you still, obviously again, have a landline.

Any downside? The rechargeable batteries provided were probably knitted together in a shade five workshop down some Bangladeshi back ally and, despite showing fully charged, died seconds after lifting the handset out of the charger, so I got new, named brand batteries. All tickety-boo at this time.

In other news I see that whatsisname, Jedi Jimmy, is just a misunderstood, normal, fun-loving fellow. His idea of fun sure doesn't jive with any sane persons idea of fun but, as long as he isn't hurting any…… Oh.

And the young ladies who've 'run away from home' as reported by our media ad nauseam? It has to be confusing to the easily confusable to be told by the media that we should show some sympathy as they're only sixteen year old children wot have been radicalised and brainwashed; only to be told later, sometimes in the very same news bulletin, that sixteen year olds are all grownup, know what they're doing and thus should be classed as adults and allowed to vote.

As hard as this may be for you to believe, all this got me – are you ready? – thinking…

The question I asked me to think about was; what makes some people believe, without question, the video and quickly part with their money? Then I thought, of course you could reverse the argument for those who run into the other sites first and take that as gospel.

What makes some other people, whichever site they hit first, question that sites 'facts' and search for explanations or alternative ideas? How many believe the first site they hit, find an alternative narrative and 'convert'? I would guess there are very few who are swayed from their original beliefs.

As an example, there are very many fellows out there who worship the ground Ed Davey stands on. However, I put myself amongst those who worship the ground he's going to. This has the knock-on effect that if you come down on the side that thinks young Ed's as mad as a sack o' cats, what conclusion must you come to regarding the fine judgement of those up the ladder who put him into his position? And no amount of, 'Well, I think….' will sway me. Right or wrong.

Where does the truth lie in all these 'for and against' 'like and dislike' type arguments? Somewhere in the middle? Does it matter? I will never be convinced that man is responsible for the climate and I know, for sure, that the sandal wearing old hippy over there will never be convinced that man isn't responsible for the climate. {See wot I done did there? I typecast the believer. Why?}

So, is the side you take on the climate debate and other such arguments, irrespective of the 'facts' for or against, all down to our personal in-built, inherited, or preordained belief systems? As for me, well, it's not often I'm right and I'm probably wrong again.

18 Feb 2015

Realising I only had a week to go before her indoors celebrates another birthday, I was frantically going through gift options when I hit upon the perfect item I remembered we she needs so off to the Web-a-net to sus out the best option.

Man, those things are a tad expensive are they not? Then I had one of those, 'I wonder if….' moments and whizzed off to that Amazon place to see if such an 'I wonder if….' item was still available after all this time.

Guess wot, I wonder no longer as, amazingly, they are still available – and very cheap - so the gift is now sorted; a new dust filter for our her aging vacuum cleaner. How lucky is that then? I could've gone to the extravagance of paying extra for postage which would've got her gift here just in time for the big day but, for free, it'll only be a couple of days late and I'm hoping this slight delay will just heighten her excitement as to what it could be. Then, when the time finally comes for her to open the package, I plan to be in another town. Or, preferably, another country.

Just a birthday card to sort now. Easy, as, fortunately, I know which draw she keeps all the cards I've previously presented to her, in their original envelopes, so it's just a matter of plucking one from down the pile a-ways and declare another job well done. How lucky is that then?

I do hope you understand the above is just fun. I mean how mean would that be, re-giving old cards……

Quote; Anthony Robbins.

“Every problem is a gift - without problems we would not grow.”

Mary Oliver.

“Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.”